FIRE Act

Key Points

• This bill, known as the FIRE Act, changes how the government tracks air pollution. It allows states to ignore bad air quality readings if the smoke comes from a wildfire or a "prescribed fire"—which is a fire started on purpose by experts to clear out brush and prevent bigger, more dangerous fires.
• Currently, if a state has too much smoke in the air, it can face penalties for failing to meet federal air quality standards. This bill ensures that states aren't punished for smoke they can't control or for taking steps to reduce the risk of massive forest fires.
• If a large smoke cloud crosses state lines and affects multiple states, the EPA would be required to do the scientific modeling for all of them at once. This would save local governments time and money by having the federal government handle the complex data analysis.
• The bill also requires the EPA to create a public website within one year. This site would be updated every month so people can see which states are asking to have their air quality data adjusted and whether the EPA has approved those requests.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.